Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Stanley Dodson (ed), (1) 1998, (2) 1999 (1) Ecology (2) Readings in Ecology Oxford University Press; ISBN: (1) 0 19 512079 5, (2) 0 19 513309 9; Pages (1) xiv + 434,(2) ix + 461 £22.99

Contents

(1) 1 - What is ecology?; 2 - People and nature; 3 - Landscape ecology; 4 - Ecosystem ecology; 5 - Physiological ecology; 6 - Behavioural ecology; 7 - Population ecology; 8 - Community ecology.
For contents of (2), see below.

Summary

See description of this table.

Age range
Presentation/style
Content
Literature
Originality
Overall ranking

Review

These two books are reviewed together because that's how they're supposed to be read. There's a tremendous amount of material published on introductory ecology so one could rightly wonder what could be said that was new. Dodson and his fellow authors (all professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) have accomplished this by taking a completely new slant on the topic and produced texts both invigorating and illuminating. It must be seen as something of a rite of passage for a relatively young discipline such as ecology to be able to divide itself successfully into various sub-groups. The book follows this argument by allowing each practitioner a chapter to outline the key features of the sub-discipline. Within that chapter each author outlines the basic ideas surrounding that subject, the key concepts and how they are applied. In addition, there is space given to argue how that part of ecology fits into the other areas. This is not so much an ecology text as a text on ecology. The result is a persuasive set of cases which succeed in demonstrating the utility of their part of the subject and which, with the addition of personal details and photographs, actually bring the subject to life. Here is a book by real people!

The companion Readings continues this theme with authors now back in the picture as editors. Each is given the opportunity of presenting papers or excerpts which, in their opinion, highlight key thinkers or ideas. The whole collection covers a tremendous ground in terms of history, place and idea. Writers such as Aldo Leopold and Donald Worster as juxtaposed with Fabre and Krebs. An eclectic mixture but one which actually works well. Overall, a splendid piece of work. At a time when it is all too easy to forget the people behind the science the authors and editor should be congratulated at putting forward such an excellent set of ideas.